Family From Hell
by Sly Sparrow
Summary: Skulduggery and Valkyrie are on another case, checking out an old house when they come across a certain something or someone. Skulduggery is put in a situation which forces him to ask help from the family he never wanted to see again the family from hell. Set a few years after LSODM, may contain minor spoilers. T to be safe.
1. The Beast

"Skulduggery, Valkyrie, I have a new case for you," China said as the three of them walked into her office. "But I really wanted to go to the beach today, it's really nice weather outside, can't you get someone else to do it?" Valkyrie protested "Valkyrie, shut up." Skulduggery told her as she crossed her arms with a humph. "I am well aware of the weather concisions but you have a responsibility Valkyrie, like it or not. There have been reports of something snatching mortals and dragging them to this abandoned house," China explained as she put some photos down on her desk, "I want you two to go and check it out, see what is abducting the mortals and get rid of it. Do you understand?" "You speak to us as though we are children, of course we understand." Skulduggery said.

"The house looks creepy," Valkyrie said as they rocked up. "It is abandoned, or did you forget that bit?" "No I didn't forget I was just saying that it look freaky." "Actually you said it look creepy not freaky." Skulduggery added and strode off toward the house. "Is there a difference," Valkyrie muttered before racing after her partner.

Upon entering the house it looked like something out of a horror movie. _Perfect hideout for a beast_ thought Skulduggery. Just then the duo heard a noise coming from upstairs so they carefully and quietly drifted upstairs only to come face to face with a hideous monster. It's piercing black eyes staring right through Valkyrie's soul, with its big grinning mouth full of lots of large sharp yellow teeth and its thick black fur, as sharp and stiff as daggers, standing all on end. Then he turned his gaze to Skulduggery and the grin turned to a snarl and Skulduggery knew exactly who it was. "Well, hello again." He said with a humourless laugh.

**A/N: Ok so this was a pretty bad and short chapter but they will get better and longer…I hope. Anyways please leave some reviews so I can improve the story and as an added bonus I will even add your character just tell me all about them and they will have a spot in the story. And if you have an idea I would be more than happy to hear all about it, and I will probably put that in the story as well, so fell free to criticize and give ideas/characters (in a way they are the same thing). I will update the story as often as possible even if only one person reads this…but I may need to be reminded from time to time. BTW not all AN's will be as long as this one, most of the time I won't put any in but if I do it will be important.**


	2. Lucifer

**"**You know I have wanted to catch up, wait no that's a lie, honestly I never wanted to see your face again, unless I'm putting a bullet in your head, especially after certain past events…and can you stop growling at me for ten minutes so that we can have a decent conversation or is that just too hard for you? Oh don't look at me as though I just hurt your feelings, we both know you don't have any," Skulduggery said then with a deep sigh continued what he was saying, "I've never liked you, I liked your brother and your sisters but never you. I looked at you and I would feel sick with the knowledge of what you are-"_ My sister is the same as me_ the beast told Skulduggery telepathically. "Don't interrupt me, and you're wrong, none of your siblings are like you, they don't take innocent lives-"

_Everyone has their time_

"Yes, so you keep saying. Is that how you sleep at night? Do you hear the cries of the mother who lost her family in the fire that your little pets started? Your bloody sister does. And do you know whose cries she also had to put up with for years? Your boy's. Do you remember him? The one you left on the street because he reminded you of your mother."

_You don't know what you are talking about skeleton. I don't have to justify my actions to you, what I did I did for a reason, that woman you spoke of should be grateful she didn't die in that fire, she should realise that if her family didn't die their soul would have eaten at them, tortured them and destroyed them. You know only skimmed through the story, only paying attention when it suited you. Now I don't exactly like you either but what you fail to realise is that us two, we are not that different._

"No, we are completely different. We are different in every way possible."

_You keep telling yourself that. _The beast said with a crooked grin.

"You have sunk so low, I mean you have always been low, but this. You take the form of this hideous creature, abduct innocent people and, now don't growl or anything like that at me if I get this wrong, I am just judging you on who you are your history, and you kill them. Is that what you do now? Because all of those names, that's what they to you aren't they, just names, names in a book with a date next to them, well at least most of them are. Where all of those people, all of those lives, where they in your book? Did your book say that every single person you took in the past month need to die?"

"What book? Skulduggery what are you talking about?"

Skulduggery sighed "Valkyrie do you remember the book of names?"

"Yeah"

"Well there are also two other books, the book of life, that has a record of when everyone is born, and the other book is the book of death, it has a record of when everyone dies."

"Charming, I guess this fella has the book of death."

"Yep."

"Oh, ok. So what are you going to do about him?"

"Not much we can do Valkyrie, trust me when I say this but you don't want to get on this guy's bad side."

"Yeah I kinda got the feeling that you know him and don't like him, but China said we had to get rid of him."

As soon as Valkyrie stopped talking the beast transformed into a man, he wore a black hoody with black tracksuit pants, his hair was jet black and down to his shoulders and he had a huge scar going from the top of his right eyebrow all the way down to under the left corner of his mouth, but the thing Valkyrie could not draw her gaze from was his eyes, they were the same piercing black when he was the beast, but they had a certain look about them, the way he looked at her made her want to curl up a die. Then he looked at Skulduggery with a look that can only described as pure hatred.

Finally Valkyrie found her voice, "How did you get that scar?"

"A dragon, she didn't exactly like me," the man said with an Australian accent

"I thought dragons didn't exist," Valkyrie said with extreme doubt

"They did exist Valkyrie, a long time ago; they are extinct now, died out a long time ago,"

"How do you know my name?"

"I just do, are you not going to ask my name? After all you don't know it."

"Do I need to know it?"

Before the man could reply Skulduggery asked, "Why are you on the surface, let alone in Ireland Lucifer?"

"I really don't think it's any of your business, Pleasant. You know for someone with the name Pleasant you aren't very pleasant."

"I really don't like you"

"Ok so if you two don't mind but I don't really like this house so could we maybe get the hell out of here?" Valkyrie asked

"What, don't you like my home?" Lucifer asked

"No sorry, it gives me the creeps."

"Fine let's go."

"Who said you're coming with us?" Skulduggery said

"I'll make you a deal Skulduggery, I'll burn this house down, no more people from the town will be killed, you go to your grand mage and tell her that you killed the beast and I will go back home."

"What's in it for you Lucifer?"

"Absolutely nothing, call it a act of good faith if you will."

"You don't do acts of good faith."

"Take it or leave it skeleton, you have nothing to lose."

"So you will just go back to hell where you belong, ok then deal."

And with that he disappeared with a puff of black smoke. When they got back to the Bentley Valkyrie asked Skulduggery "So how do you know that guy?" Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie and told her "He's my brother-in-law," and got into the car.

**A/N: Ok so this is how long I am planing to write each chapter, tell me if you think it's to long or short. :)**


	3. Who Is He?

Outside it was pouring down rain, after about a week the good weather had gone and was replaced by cold wet miserable days, and Valkyrie never got to go to the beach.

Valkyrie was sitting in one of Skulduggery's armchairs reading a book when he walked into the room, when she didn't look up he knew something was wrong. "What's wrong Valkyrie?" he asked

"Nothing," she said turning the page.

"You're lying."

"No I'm not!" she practically shouted throwing down her book.

Skulduggery tilted his head and looked at her in a way that only a skeleton could pull off. "Now I shall repeat my question, what's wrong?"

"It's not fair, we get a week, a whole week of beautiful weather and China kept us so busy. I couldn't go to the beach, it's not fair. And I just recently found out you have a brother-in-law and you tell me absolutely nothing about him, I mean surly he can't be that bad, I mean his eyes are a bit creepzilla but nobody's perfect," when Valkyrie saw Skulduggery slowly shaking his head at her she paused then said "Why don't you tell me about him?"

"What's to tell?" he stated with absolute bitterness.

"Please Skulduggery."

With a sigh Skulduggery reluctantly started to tell Valkyrie all about Lucifer, "Lucifer is, was, my wife's twin brother, they had a good relationship, they were close, they even had a telepathic link, they knew all of each other's secrets. They were also complete opposites, where he preferred death and destruction, she preferred life. When their mother died something happened to them, my wife became withdrawn and spent hours on end locked in her room, Lucifer started killing anything that got in his way, the other two, Jack and Heidi, they kept their distance, they even hated my wife for a while, just because she never cried of their mother's death. Their mother never like Lucifer, she always said he had a great evil in him, and she was right. Their mother was very powerful, she had many enemies, and one of them was Lilith. Lilith's and Lucifer's hatred of his mother was what brought them together and they ended up marrying each other, kinda sick if you think about it, marrying someone because you both hate the same person. But in a way they are made for each other, they are both sick twisted people that love death. About 800 years ago they had a son, but because he had his grandmother's eyes they kicked him out onto the street and my wife took pity on him and raised him on her own. But there is something very important that you must understand Valkyrie. Lucifer is not fully human."

"What do you mean?"

"His mother was a dragon, the most powerful dragon of them all. She had a rare gift that only the luckiest dragons have the ability to shape-shift. That's how she was able to easily deceive Lucifer's father, but that wouldn't be a very hard thing to do."

"Why do you say that?"

"He was a caveman from the stone age. Lucifer is very old Valkyrie. He was even one of the Ancients many years ago, in fact all four of them where."

"Right, so why does he have the book of death?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?" he asked her with surprise in his voice. When she shook her head he told her, "He's the devil Valkyrie, he rules over the underworld, on the date of your death he sends out a grim reaper that is in your area to reap you then bring you down to hell so he can assess you and lead you to the right part of hell. Think of him as the king of death and Lilith as the queen of death."

"OK, so who has the book of life?"

"My wife had the book until she died, then it was given to Lucifer for safe keeping."

As soon as Skulduggery stopped talking his phone rang. He answered it, "Hello?" "Hi Skulduggery its China, I need you and Valkyrie to come to the sanctuary ASAP." And without waiting for a response China ended the call.

"That was China," Skulduggery explained, "she wants us at the sanctuary, for something important I think."

"When?"

"Now"

"Well we better be off then, wouldn't want to waste her majesty's time."

"What do you want China?" Valkyrie asked as they strode into her office. "There have been reports of this thing killing sorcerers, mortals and even the occasional animal. I thought you told me you killed the beast?"

"We did kill it" Skulduggery told her

"Then how come we have had all these reports _and_ these surveillance photos?" she asked as she through a bunch of photographs onto her desk. Valkyrie walked over and took a look at them, "this is not the beast we killed China, this is something completely different." Skulduggery looked at the photos, they were of a woman, _no not a woman_ Skulduggery thought then took a closer look. She had long fiery red hair down to her waist, Violet triangular eyes, jet black shiny scales where her skin is meant to be and large leathery wings spurting out of her back with sharp white teeth sitting gently on her black lips but the thing that stood out the most to Skulduggery was the scar on her right arm, three lines, all next to each other, in every photo she was standing in a position that suggested she was getting ready to fight. After staring at the photographs after what seemed like hours Skulduggery finally said something so quiet that if China and Valkyrie wasn't expecting him to say something they would have missed it, "impossible" Skulduggery whispered.

**A/N: Ok so I had a bit of trouble with this chapter but with a little chat with my friend Jedi-TARDIS-Chick I got a cool idea, thanks for your help. Again if you have any ideas please tell me and I will ut them in.**


	4. Impossible

"What's impossible?" China asked. When Skulduggery didn't answer she asked him again with more force in her voice, "Detective Pleasant what is impossible?"

Skulduggery looked up, "Hmmm?"

"When you looked at the picture you said impossible, why?" Valkyrie said while China looked at him suspiciously. Skulduggery simply dismissed them both with a wave of his hand, "Doesn't matter," he said "but what does is the fact that she will continue killing unless we stop her," he told them

"Then stop her, get rid of her or even make her disappear, I don't care just as long as she stops killing everything, I want her gone at whatever the cost, got it?" China said.

"Yes boss," Valkyrie replied with a very monotone voice and Skulduggery nodded, with that the duo wandered off back to the Bentley.

When they got to the car Skulduggery was talking to himself "She's dead, this isn't right, and it wasn't like her to just kill off random people, there must be a good reason, something must be wrong, how is she alive, this is not normal, this is bad, really really bad, she's too powerful, she could kill us without lifting a finger, we are going to need help, someone who can match her power and who knows her better than me, but there is no one, unless…"

"Are you seriously talking to yourself again?" Valkyrie asked him.

Skulduggery looked at her as he went around the car to his side "Yes, sometimes I need the opinion of a genius."

"You are so full of yourself," she said when they were both in the car.

After what seemed like hours of driving Valkyrie was really bored and finally asked "where are we going?" when Skulduggery didn't answer she asked again "Skulduggery, where are we going and when are we going to get there?" but Skulduggery just continued driving, his eyes fixated on the road, but his mind was elsewhere. _Where is it, it was around her somewhere, or was it further up, I can't remember anymore, _he silently chuckled a humourless chuckle, _and there I was thinking I would never have to go back to that terrible place, oh how I was wrong. What am I thinking! He will never help us, why will he want to help us, stupid, stupid, how could I be so stupid. Oh I need to turn here. _Skulduggery made a sharp turn onto a small dirt road, slamming Valkyrie into the door "Jesus Christ Skulduggery, why don't you be careful for a change, I want to go home alive you know!" Valkyrie shouted at him, just as they came to a stop. "We have to walk from here," Skulduggery told her as he got out the car. With a groan of displeasure she got out of the car and looked around as far as the eye could see was just paddock after paddock after paddock, "Seriously Skulduggery, all I can see is grass, grass and more grass, where are we going?" she asked. But all Skulduggery did for an answer was point towards the setting sun and started walking off in that direction. Valkyrie looked over toward where Skulduggery was walking and saw a tiny silhouette of a small shack and she ran off toward Skulduggery.

After about two hours of walking the sun went down so now they were walking in pitch black. _But it didn't_ _look that far we must have been walking for at least three hours now surly we must get there soon, I wonder why Skulduggery hasn't been talking much. _Valkyrie thought then asked "Where are we going?"

Skulduggery looked at her and simply stated "to get help."

"Well did we have to travel for a whole day just to get help?"

"We haven't been traveling a whole day Valkyrie and yes we did need to go this far that shack over there is the closest entrance point."

"Closest entrance point to what?"

"You'll see."

When they finally got to the shack it took all the energy Valkyrie had just not to collapse then and there. She was sore and extremely exhausted and when she looked over towards Skulduggery and she was angry that he seemed unfazed by the great distance they had just walked. She looked over at the shack; it was made of wood and was falling apart, it looked dark and gloomy and had a creepy vibe about it. "Who would live in a place like this? Are you sure we are in the right place?"

"Yes I'm sure, I know what I'm doing Valkyrie" Skulduggery told her and walked into the old shack. With a heavy sigh Valkyrie reluctantly followed Skulduggery inside.

As soon Valkyrie walked in her ring went deadly cold, so cold she let out a small gasp of surprise. The inside of the shack was worse than the outside, it was dark and spooky, there was no light, the floor boards creaked when they were stood on and the place smelt damp and full of old mould. Skulduggery reached out for something that Valkyrie couldn't see and the next thing she knew she was freefalling down…

down…

down…

Until she hit the ground hard with a thud, Skulduggery landed softly, looked at her and said "You know you could have used the air to slow your descent down."

"Thank you Skulduggery for that wonderful piece of advice, once again would it kill you to let me know this stuff before or better yet a little warning before you send us hurtling down at a thousand kilometres per hour!" Valkyrie snapped. She look up and around, they were in the middle of a dark and sooky forest in the middle of the night with only the full moon to light the way and Valkyrie's ring went even colder, she didn't even think that was possible. "Where are we?" Valkyrie asked with a hint of fear in her voice. Then from behind them came a woman's voice. "What are you doing here, I thought I made it quite clear I didn't want to see you around here ever again, go home you are not welcome here." She spat as Skulduggery and Valkyrie turned around.

**A/N: I just want to apologise is I offended anyone in this chapter with Valkyrie's language or anything like that, it was either say what I said or swear or something like that and even though this story is rated T I wanted to play it safe, so again sorry if I offended anyone.**


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